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12 Actors Who Have Major Regrets About A Role (12 Who Have None)

A lot of actors have many regrets about one or more of their films. Some end up despising their role if their movie bombed, and some didn't like the script but were forced into a film because of a movie contract with a studio. And then there are actors who disparage the films that made them stars, and we wonder why there's so much animosity, especially when the film did well at the box office. For Kate Winslet, for example, she detested her performance in Titanic and didn't want to be in the film, despite the fact that Titanic made Winslet an instant star.

And then there's the flip side, actors who have no regrets about the parts they played. This surprises us for the most part because they are defending movies that were critically trashed or did so bad at the box-office upon release that in most cases it puts the actor's career in jeopardy. These actors aren't gods; they're mortals like us and sometimes they have moments they utterly regret and moments that they don't regret at all, even though they probably should. So here are 12 actors who have major regrets about a film, as well as 12 actors who have absolutely none.

24 Regrets: Carrie Fisher, The Star Wars Original Trilogy

The Mary Sue

Carrie Fisher reprised her iconic role as Princess Leia in 2015's "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." She told Time that the only reason she returned to the part was because it was "difficult to get work after [turning] 30" for women in Hollywood.

23 No Regrets: Elizabeth Berkley, Showgirls

Huff Post

Saved By The Bell star Elizabeth Berkley starred in the much-derided and box office bomb Showgirls in the 1990s. Somehow the movie eventually became a high-camp cult classic like The Big Lebowski. Here's what Berkeley said,

“I had the most extraordinary experience making the film. . . . When a dream is happening, it’s unlike anything you can ever imagine.” She added: "You guys and the love you have for this movie have made this the cult film that it is. . . .I really do want you to know this movie is something I love, but I love it because you love it too.” (Source: People)

Instead, the script was actually written by another Joel Cohen. Which explains why his character in Zombieland says he regrets doing Garfield. But this could just be funnyman Murray making a big joke. How would you not know of the mix-up before even filming began? (Source: BusinessInsider)

21 No Regrets: John Travolta, Battlefield Earth

Tribute.ca

Battlefield Earth was John Travolta's baby. He struggled to get the L. Ron novel onto the big screen, and he did but it was a big box-office dud. Roger Ebert said, "Battlefield Earth is like taking a bus trip with someone who has needed a bath for a long time. It's not merely bad; it's unpleasant in a hostile way. "

The movie was labeled by the press as a Scientology film (this is both true and not true). But no matter what, Travolta stands by it. He said, "I have no regrets at all. And if we had to do it over again, I would still do it. It was a moment where I could say, 'I had all the power in the world and could do whatever I wanted'. Not a lot of people get that opportunity, and I did what I wanted to do." (Source: DigitalSpy)

20 Regret: Matt Damon, The Bourne Ultimatum

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Like Carrie Fisher, Matt Damon came out of the woodwork to star in 2016's Jason Bourne despite having misgivings about the third Bourne film, The Bourne Ultimatum in 2007. In 2011, Damon trashed the script, which he called "unreadable," and was secretly angry at the time that Universal Pictures wanted to go ahead with the film. Since he was contractually obliged to appear in the Ultimatum, he had no gag order and went to town taking down the script:

"I don't blame Tony for taking a boatload of money and handing in what he handed in. It’s just that it was unreadable. This is a career-ender. I mean, I could put this thing up on eBay and it would be game over for that dude. It's terrible. It's really embarrassing. He was having a go, basically, and he took his money and left." (Source: TheWire)

19 No Regrets: Christina Ricci, Black Snake Moan

Einhorn-Film

Christina Ricci is also an actor who doesn't regret her role in the little-seen Black Snake Moan. In fact, she's proud of it. But she did have problems about how the movie, especially her character, was marketed. According to Cosmopolitan, the marketers tried to market her character to teenage and college boys and in one advert was pictured with little on and tied by a chain to co-star Samuel L. Jackson.

She told Cosmopolitan, "The way that movie was marketed was probably one of the most disappointing and upsetting things that's ever happened to me in my career. . . I have no interest in exploiting women any further than they've already been exploited."

18 Regrets: Kate Winslet, Titanic

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Titanic is one of the highest-grossing films of all time, and made a star of Kate Winslet. She loved being a part of the film. But these days, Winslet is biting the hand that feeds. According to multiple reports, Winslett wished she hadn't done the barely-there (but tasteful) posing scene since, to this day, photos and clips of the scene are still prominent and are everywhere.

She also hated her acting. "My American accent, I can't listen to it. It's awful." And she adds that fans still come up to her with photos in which she's posing and ask for her autograph. "It feels very uncomfortable. People ask me to sign that [picture] a lot." (Source: InTouchWeekly)

17 No Regrets: Milla Jovovich, Returns To The Blue Lagoon

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Return to the Blue Lagoon was supposed to be a big break for Milla Jovovich, but the film turned out to be awful and slid quietly into the movie bin where bad movies grow old and die. One critic called the film, "neither campy enough to be howlingly funny nor prurient enough to be provocative".

Jovovich, who played Lilly, had to appear naked in the film, but she doesn't regret that, despite the fact that she was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst New Star for her role in this film. She also doesn't regret being in a box-office bomb, as she got her career back on track with Resident Evil.

16 Regrets: Sean Connery, The James Bond Movies

Ireland Today

You can't separate James Bond from Sean Connery, the actor who played the 007 agent starting with the very first film, "Dr. No" in 1962. But Connery wishes you can, and by the time Diamonds Are Forever, the sixth film in the franchise came along, he was sick of his character.

But his portrait of the 007 agent is indelible and iconic, and he'll never be forgotten for starring in the Bond films. As he told the Guardian, "I have always hated that damned James Bond. . . "I'd like to kill him." That's funny!

15 No Regrets: Demi Moore, Striptease

Harper's Bazaar

In the 1990s, Demi Moore was an A-list star after finding success in A Few Good Men and Indecent Proposal. Then, somehow, Demi took on the wrong parts, first in Striptease and second in G.I. Jane in 1997.

When Striptease bombed, Moore's status in Hollywood was questioned, but she never regretted the role. She had to bump and grind it in the film and to become a personal friend with a pole, and the movie was kind of like a TV-MA film.

14 Regrets: Christopher Plummer, The Sound of Music

A&E

Christopher Plummer became an overnight A-list star with the release of the Oscar winner The Sound of Music. So you'd think he loved the movie. But according to Boston.com, it turns out that he hated his role. He referred to the film as S&M or the Sound of Mucus.

As he put it, “I was a bit bored with the character. Although we worked hard enough to make him interesting, it was a bit like flogging a dead horse. And the subject matter is not mine. I mean it can’t appeal to every person in the world. It’s not my cup of tea.’’

13 No Regrets Taylor Kitsch

PopSugar

The movie John Carter opened in 2012 and quickly died at the box office. It made $62 mill in the US in its first three weekends against a $250 mil budget. For Taylor Kitsch, this was supposed to be his debut in movies. He knew the consequences of having this kind of film in his credits.

And yet he told EW, that he had “absolutely no regrets” about his first big screen starring role. “I would do John Carter again tomorrow. . . . “I’m very proud of John Carter. Box office doesn’t validate me as a person, or as an actor.”

12 Regrets: Halle Berry, Catwoman

US Weekly

Halle Berry is also one of those actors who regretted their work in a movie. For Berry, it was Catwoman, which she called her acting a "really bad performance." But she's not the only one who's deriding the doomed movie.

The role was so bad that Berry won the Razzie Award for Worst Actress. But at least she can look back at the role with humor. Upon accepting the award, she said, "I want to thank Warner Bros. for casting me in this Reese's pieces-of-sh--, g-d-awful movie." (Source: MTV)

“I’ve done a lot of things that I look back on and go ‘sheesh, are you kidding, what were you thinking? It is weird to say because I am also happy that I did all of those things because I am here before you today able to proclaim that this is me and I am very proud of who I am.” (Source: PeopleMagazine)

"When you read the book. . . looking appropriately pallid and interesting even without makeup, 'it's like, 'Edward Cullen was so beautiful I [ice-creamed] myself.' I mean, every line is like that. He's the most ridiculous person who's so amazing at everything. I think a lot of actors tried to play that aspect. I just couldn't do that. And the more I read the script, the more I hated this guy, so that's how I played him, as a manic-depressive who hates himself. Plus, he's a 108-year-old virgin so he's obviously got some issues there." (Source: Io9.Gizmod0)

9 No Regrets: Katie Holmes, Her Entire Career

PopSugar

Katie Holmes has taken on a lot of films that have gone nowhere. Do you remember Touched By Fire or Miss Meadows? She nearly lost her A-list status with these kinds of films, but she's also a stable actor with a long career that started with the TV show Dawson's Creek when she was just a teen.

But whatever role she took on, whatever movie she starred in, Holmes has absolutely no regrets. She told People: “I don’t regret anything that I’ve done. . . I’ve learned from everything, and everything sort of leads you to the next place. I just keep going.”

8 Regrets: George Clooney, Batman & Robin

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George Clooney doesn't care if you mock him for ruining the Batman series with him playing the character in Joel Schumacher's critically panned 1997 film Batman & Robin. In fact, he's the one who keeps deriding the film. He said in Looper that he "terribly destroyed the part."

He then added, "I think since Batman that I've been disinvited from Comic-Con for 20 years. I see the comment sections on all you guys. I just met Adam West there and I apologized to him. Sorry about the [blossoms] on the suit. Freeze, Freeze, apologize for that." Looper also reported that he can't even watch the movie, and probably never will.

7 No Regrets: Screenwriters for Avengers: Infinity War

vox.com

The screenwriters for Avengers: Infinity War, Stephen McFeely, and Christopher Markus, have finally addressed a character's passing in the film and both say they don't regret making the decision. That would be King T'Challa from Black Panther, which seems odd given that Panther broke records when it was released. But if they had to write off T'Challa again, they would do it in a heartbeat.

McFeely said, "First of all, we would do it all over again. But remember, when we're writing (Infinity War), and even shooting, there is no Black Panther movie. We don't know it's going to be so good, so effective, so resonant. And we had to treat all these characters the same."

6 Regrets: Ben Affleck, Daredevil

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Ben Affleck has been in a lot of duds, but he only regrets one: 2003's Daredevil. He took the role because he was a comic book fan who loved the character, but soon found during filming that there was no consensus by the producers on what the film was supposed to accomplish.

As a result, Daredevil floundered, and you can see that in the movie itself. But Affleck did return to playing another superhero, Batman in Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice. As Affleck said, “Part of it was I wanted for once to get one of these movies and do it right – to do a good version." Now here's the soundbite: "I hate Daredevil so much.” We do too. (Source: NME)

5 No Regrets: Benicio del Toro, Star Trek

The Film Stage

Benicio del Toro was supposed to play the villain Khan in the second modern Star Trek film, but instead, the Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch stepped in. It turns out that the Oscar winner del Toro left Star Trek in the early stages of production.

The actor told RadioTimes.com that Cumberbatch played the part well. As he said, “I saw him in the film, yeah– he was very good. He added, "He's [a] very good actor. But, no, I don’t regret it." So del Toro doesn't feel bad that he abandoned the part and said, “You gotta have short-term memory in this business. If it didn’t work out, you know – too bad, move on.”

4 Regrets: Mark Wahlberg, The Happening

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Mark Wahlberg is the world's highest paid actor in Hollywood, according to Forbes. He knocked it out of the gate with $68 mil over a 12 month period. He's also an A-list star who can make a hit out of a film like Ted because of his easygoing charisma. That's why he's Hollywood's leading man. But there was one M. Night Shyamalan film, The Happening, which was a box-office flop, that Wahlberg starred in and to this day regrets.

He only took on the role because, back then, all the scripts he got involved him playing a cop or a crook yet again. Here's what he said about The Happening: "Nook it. It is what it is. Nooking trees, man. The plants. Nook it." What??

3 No Regrets: Jerry Seinfeld, Seinfeld

Forbes

When Jerry Seinfeld decided to end his NBC comedy Seinfeld after nine seasons, it was rumored that NBC was offering him a staggering $5 million per episode to continue the show for its tenth season. And although he's just one of two TV stars on our list of actors in movies, Seinfeld said he had no regrets turning down the tenth season with all that cash attached.

He said, “It was the perfect moment” to end the show. . . and the proof that it was the right moment is the number of questions you’re still asking me about it.” (Source: MSN)

2 Regrets: Edward Norton, The Italian Job

Los Angeles Times

While filming the 2003 remake of The Italian Job, Edward Norton was the only one in the cast who couldn't stand the production and regretted playing his role to this day. Norton didn't even want to be in the movie but he had a multi-picture deal with Paramount; if he failed to take the role, he risked a multi-million dollar lawsuit. Sounds great, right?

It's like a gun to your head. Norton has every right to be furious at having been forced into the role, And remember you are making the films for months and you have to deal with the cast and the crew each day and smile like you mean it. (Source: Observer)

1 No Regrets: Steve Carell, The Office

NBC Universal

Steve Carell left a very popular NBC comedy, The Office, way before the show ended for good. But Carell has absolutely no regrets about leaving the show.

In an interview with Reuters, Carell said about leaving the sitcom, "I felt like it was the right thing to do and the right time for me to go." He then added: "It's very much akin to when I left The Daily Show. I had a great job and good friends and a solid income... I just felt like if I'm going to leave, I better leave now before I get too comfortable."